The visible piercings, including a nose ring, didn’t necessarily disqualify a woman who came in for a job interview a couple years ago. However, the flip-flops on her feet moved her application to the bottom of the pile.

The visible piercings, including a nose ring, didn’t necessarily disqualify a woman who came in for a job interview a couple years ago. However, the flip-flops on her feet moved her application to the bottom of the pile.

I’ve never been shopping on Black Friday. It’s not that I’m philosophically opposed to the frenzied day. It’s more a practical matter. Our small business can’t afford to take two holidays in a row for all our employees since we still have deadlines to meet and publications to print.

During a long weekend in Washington, D.C., one of the sights I made sure to see was the Newseum on historic Pennsylvania Avenue just off the National Mall near the White House. My interest was in the news focus, but the museum has a broader role — to promote, explain and defend free expression and the five freedoms of the First Amendment: religion, speech, press, assembly and petition.

Halfway through the “A” firearms season, reports from deer hunters were mixed. Opening weekend with warmer than normal temperatures suppressed deer activity to a certain extent, wildlife biologists reported. But by the end of the first week, bucks were beginning to trail after does a bit more.

More than half a million dollars in campaign spending didn’t do much to change the outcome of the District 28B race. On the other hand, a candidate who barely spent any time in Minnesota carried the district in the presidential election Tuesday, Nov. 8.

The toxic presidential election is in many ways overshadowing — even distorting — other matters of importance in the upcoming election. As noted in this column last week, there are issues, and concerning trends, that are more important to rural voters, yet rural voters often become reduced to stereotypes only interested in the most divisive parts of a campaign, an accusation that simply isn’t true.

With all the fatal flaws dragging down Donald Trump, he still has some appeal in rural areas of Minnesota. Some may say his supporters have the same fatal flaws — they are narrow-minded, divisive hicks who want to turn back the clock.

“Basically, Trump is everything wrong with America’s culture, and Hillary is everything wrong with our government,” Janae Petitjean, 19, a North Carolina community college student who will be voting for the first time this year, told the Boston Globe recently.

Mitch Boyum patrols a big territory. Since May he's served as conservation officer (aka game warden) not only for the Rushford station but (temporarily) La Crescent as well. On top of that, he has also been covering half of the Spring Valley enforcement area while that position is vacant.

During a presentation on fire safety to elementary school students who were bused to the local fire hall this week during National Fire Prevention Week, a volunteer firefighter had to remind them that the firefighters don’t live on the premises. That fire halls always house firefighters may be the perception of kids, and many adults, too, due to television, but it’s not the norm. The National Fire Protection Association reports that 69 percent of firefighters in the United States are volunteers.

The dysfunction of national politics is creeping into all corners of Minnesota as big spending and negative campaigning are making an impact on the race for House District 28B, which includes all of Fillmore and Houston counties. It’s a trend that has been building over the last few elections, but seems to have taken a significant step forward this year.

Minnesota is the second happiest state in America, behind top state Utah and ahead of third place North Dakota, according to an analysis by WalletHub, a personal finance site. Although there are all sorts of rankings out there, this one has a lot of data and scientific analysis to support its findings, making it more than just a novelty to share on social media.

Sept. 17 to 23 is Constitution Week, a time to commemorate America’s most important document. The resolution, petitioned by the Daughters of the American Revolution, was adopted by Congress and signed into law in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

As I was making my way through the early part of a marathon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Sunday morning, a man ran up next to me and asked me if I was Dave Phillips from Spring Valley. As I confirmed my identity to a man I didn’t recognize, my brain was quickly searching its sometimes forgetful resources trying to figure out how he knew me. Was he a running acquaintance from Rochester, someone I talked to at one of my newspaper offices or someone I met briefly at a local gathering?